The last Hidden Cloud ninja in the immediate vicinity collapsed beneath Saiki's blade. As the impact of the black shadow landing kicked up a whirlwind of dust and grit, Saiki's body moved with fluid grace, retreating a few steps to clear the zone.
As the dust settled, Saiki finally got a clear look at the newcomer: a towering, barrel-chested man with wild white hair and skin the color of deep mahogany. He looked rugged and primal, with arcs of black electricity crackling intermittently across his skin.
The man's presence was intimidating, but more importantly, the chakra radiating from him was terrifyingly dense—far surpassing that of a standard Jonin.
Staring at the giant, Saiki felt a flicker of confusion. Did the Hidden Cloud have someone like this in the records?
Then again, it wasn't that strange. Each of the Five Great Nations had over ten thousand ninja; the original manga only showcased a fraction of them. Encountering a powerhouse he didn't recognize was perfectly normal in this reality.
The Cloud brute's face was a mask of dark fury as he scanned the clearing. He saw the corpses of over twenty of his kinsmen—shredded, missing limbs, and scattered as piles of raw meat in the mud. His already dark complexion seemed to turn even blacker with rage.
"Leaf brat... you did this?" The giant's teeth ground together with an audible crunch, his voice a low, vibrating growl of pure hatred.
Saiki didn't quite understand why the man was asking the obvious, but being a well-mannered soul, he replied politely, "Oh, you mean these guys? Well, unless there's a ghost running around here, yeah, I killed them all."
The giant's eyes locked onto Saiki, narrowing as he tried to mentally categorize which Leaf prodigy the boy might be.
But he found nothing. The only famous white-haired genius was Kakashi Hatake, and by the time Saiki Shiroya's name had begun to circulate, this man was already entrenched on the front lines.
Due to the chaotic nature of the war, Saiki's reputation hadn't reached the same legendary status as Kakashi's yet.
While the giant didn't recognize him, Saiki looked at the man's features and felt a memory click into place.
"Tell me, what's your relationship to Darui?"
The brute before him bore a striking resemblance to the future Fifth Raikage. Moreover, Saiki remembered that the man named Darui was the sole inheritor of the "Black Lightning" technique passed down from the Third Raikage.
The giant, whose name was Kukai, had intended to probe Saiki's identity. Finding out the boy knew of his son sent a jolt of alarm through him.
"How the fuck do you know Darui?" Kukai's voice shifted from anger to a chilling, shocked intensity. His gaze looked ready to drill through Saiki's skull to see his internal thoughts.
Saiki had slipped up. The current Darui was only five or six years old—just a brat in the Academy.
Kukai immediately suspected a Leaf spy had been targeting his family, gathering intel that was now common knowledge among the Leaf's upper echelon.
As a high-level operative wielding Black Lightning and pseudo-Lightning Armor, Kukai was exactly the kind of threat Konoha would keep a file on.
Faced with Kukai's murderous stare, Saiki played the role of the innocent child, flashing a clueless smile. "Ah, so there really is a kid with that name? What a coincidence!"
Kukai was done talking. Whether it was for the slaughter of his men or the potential threat to his son, he decided the boy had to die.
ZZZT!
Black electricity erupted from Kukai's pores. He drew the longsword from his back and transformed into a streak of obsidian light, aiming directly for Saiki's handsome head.
As a practitioner of Kenjutsu and a student of Lightning Style, Saiki knew exactly how fast a Cloud specialist could be.
From the moment Kukai had reached the battlefield, Saiki had been in a state of high alert, anticipating a sudden, explosive blitz.
There is no room for pity on a field of blood. Even if the opponent is a child or a woman, one must strike to kill. Kukai moved with everything he had, his blade hungry for Saiki's life.
Of course, Saiki had his own rules. Even in war, he refused to kill women—unless they were like the Root members, stripped of their souls and turned into mindless tools.
To Saiki, a woman without a soul wasn't a woman. If Orochimaru ever stole a female body, Saiki would cut him down without a second thought.
The pressure of Kukai's killing intent was like a physical weight. Saiki marveled at the speed; the man was truly an Elite Jonin of the Cloud.
In the fraction of a second before they collided, the world seemed to slow down. Kukai found the breath to let out a final, guttural roar. "DIE, YOU LEAF BASTARD!"
Saiki simply smirked. Gripping his sword with both hands, he met the charge with a velocity that matched the giant's own.
CLANG!
The blade wreathed in black lightning collided with the blade wreathed in blue. A concussive shockwave rippled through the air, and both men felt the raw physical power of the other travel up their arms.
They rebounded instantly. Kukai was reeling with internal shock. How the hell does this brat have so much strength? His speed was matched, and his arms were actually trembling from the feedback. The skin between his thumbs and forefingers throbbed with pain.
Despite his age and massive physical advantage, Kukai was being outmatched in raw power by a child. He stared at Saiki with a look of profound, wary alarm.
While Kukai was dealing with his shock, Saiki was looking at his own blade and thinking, "Fucking hell." A small notch had been chipped into the edge of his katana. He realized immediately that he couldn't keep trading direct blows with this man.
He also noted the bizarre nature of the Black Lightning. In the original series, it didn't show many special traits, but as a technique developed by a Raikage, it was clearly superior to standard Lightning Style.
Judging by the chakra conductivity, both blades were high-grade tools. Their base durability should have been identical. The fact that Saiki's blade chipped while Kukai's was unharmed proved that the Black Lightning was providing a structural reinforcement that standard electricity couldn't match.
The standoff lasted only two breaths. They studied each other, reaching their own conclusions.
Saiki acknowledged the lethality of the Black Lightning; Kukai acknowledged that despite his size, the boy was faster and stronger.
Since brute force wasn't working, Kukai shifted tactics instantly.
He slammed his sword back into its scabbard and slammed his palms together. Black sparks began to coalesce between his hands.
"Lightning Style: Black Panther!"
CRACK!
The black electricity condensed into the shape of a prowling, predatory panther that lunged at Saiki with blinding speed.
Saiki wasn't worried. He circulated his internal Qi, drawing it up through his "heavy gates." A small, ethereal white cloud drifted from his crown.
The Auspicious Cloud hovered above him, a curtain of misty rain falling from its edges to form a divine barrier.
The Black Panther struck with the fury of a wild beast, carrying enough voltage to turn a man to ash in a heartbeat. Saiki remained perfectly still.
BOOM!
The obsidian lightning slammed into the fragile-looking rain-curtain. But the lightning failed to pierce the mist. It didn't turn Saiki into a pile of cinders; it simply vanished upon contact.
"Impossible!"
Kukai's eyes widened to the size of saucers. A B-rank jutsu with A-rank lethality had been neutralized by a fluffy little cloud as if it were nothing.
Saiki watched the giant's shock. He allowed the cloud to descend and vanish back into his soul. His voice was like a shard of ice. "Is that it? Do you have any real tricks? Because if this is the extent of your power, then it's time for you to die."
After his breakthrough with Tsunade, Saiki wasn't entirely sure where his ceiling was. But he had tested the Auspicious Cloud; even his own miniature Rasenshuriken couldn't break the seal.
What was even more "broken" was the cost. The cloud consumed almost none of his own reserves; once manifested, it naturally absorbed the natural energy of the world to sustain itself.
If he didn't care about being flashy, Saiki could keep the cloud active permanently.
Moreover, having the cloud out actually accelerated his own chakra recovery and cultivation speed.